News from Ecuador: same old same old, and something new.

Like the rest of Latin America, Ecuador is plagued by corruption. Corruption is the major topic of conversation among the highly aware and involved people we met. The history of the country is a continuous parade of corrupt leaders who, in cahoots with international bankers and the local oligarchy, are constantly sucking the life out of the country. The latest round of this is causing some severe frustration, as the people thought they had finally elected a government of, by and for the people, only to find themselves betrayed.

Three years ago there was a coup that deposed one of the most corrupt leaders yet. We met several of the high-ranking officers who were involved in this coup. While not on the far left, these men decided enough was enough and supported an uprising of Indians who came by the tens of thousands into the Congress to protest President Mahuada's move to "dollarization," that is, abandonment of their national currency and adoption of the dollar as the legal tender of the country. The uprising followed a year of disastrous bank failures, out-of-control inflation, and austere economic policies imposed by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.

This was the first coup in South America in over a decade. The American government was quick to warn the coup leaders that the country would be isolated like Cuba if the junta didn't step aside. They quickly yielded the reigns to Vice President Noboa, a billionaire member of the oligarchy.

The country had general elections this past November. One of the coup leaders, Lucio Gutierrez was elected President in a race against Noboa. The people thought they had finally elected a President who would represent their interests, and there was much talk of Gutierrez being a part of a trio of South American leaders on the left, along with Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, and Lula Silva of Brazil. American media and politicians began referring to these three, along with Fidel Castro, as the "Latin Axis of Evil." Since then Gutierrez has proven himself to be a total sellout to the bankers, the US government and the oligarchy. When his former comrades speak of him the word "traitor" is frequently used.

Gutierrez was in DC while we were in Ecuador. His visit was big news down there, and the reports fully confirmed the view of him as a turncoat. He said in a press conference that he wanted Ecuador to be the USA's closest ally in Latin America; he signed a new agreement with the IMF and agreed with the State Department about increasing the use of Ecuadorian territory in the CIA's battle with the FARC over control the Colombian drug trade, oops, I mean, in the War on Drugs.

I went down for some meetings with a small group of people who are working in the realm of creating alternatives to what I call the money cartel, the banking system that has centralized control of the medium we all use to conduct exchange with one another. There is a lot of work going on in this realm, and it is likely that in the next few years there is going to be radical change in the systems we use for exchange. The work that my associates and I are doing in this realm is aimed at decentralizing and democratizing the money supply. We are working to develop and provide secure systems through which people and businesses can conduct exchange with one another without relying upon privately owned banks to provide the medium of exchange or the clearing process.

I intend to use my status as the operator of The Essential Baking Company to encourage others to join in a community of people who extend credit to one another without relying upon money provided by banks at interest and to settle accounts without paying fees to banks for this service. I am willing to assume a disproportionate share of whatever risks this will entail, in order to get such a system off the ground. My hope is that this can grow into a significant movement here in Seattle and become a template for other communities to use. Hopefully this will help to build a worldwide movement to keep within our communities the power and wealth we relinquish to the money cartel every time we make a transaction using their money.

To provide a brief explanation of how the money system works: The bankers loan all the money into circulation, at interest. Almost no money exists that is not subject to interest payments by someone, somewhere. In the U.S., only coins are issued into circulation by the government, the rest of all the money (most of which is not in the form of cash, but exists only as blips in banks' computers) is created through bank loans. If we borrow it from them and they lend it to us then this means that, for as long as a unit of money exists, the bank OWNS it. Through this system we, as individuals, as communities and as states, relinquish a major part of our sovereignty to the money cartel. They create money out of thin air, loan it to us at interest, while holding our assets as collateral. Since they only issue principal, there is an insufficiency of money in circulation for all of us, in aggregate, to repay the principal and interest of the loans. This shortage of money is one of the root problems of the money system and is a contributing factor to the general level of stress and competitiveness among human beings.

Bankruptcy and confiscation of the property put up as collateral are the inevitable result of this shortage of money. Our bank debt system of money is a subtle but profound and powerful form of tyranny. When an amount of principal on a bank loan is repaid, the money supply is diminished by this amount. If all loans were repaid... well, we would run out of money before they were repaid. There would be no money in existence. It's a bit like a pyramid scheme: in the end, someone has to lose. We are reliant upon debt for our money. Bank money IS debt. The huge burdens of debt that are mounting in every sector are resulting in massive transfers of wealth from workers and producers of wealth to the people who control the money system.

While the solution being proposed may sound rather banal, it is viewed by some of us as profoundly revolutionary. The money cartel is the pinnacle of power in the world, and they use this power for their own advantage. The results of the misuse of this power are most obvious in the third world, where people are being crushed by the policies of the IMF, which is essentially the collection agency for the international money cartel. It is entirely unnecessary for us to rely upon the banks to provide us with our medium of exchange, and now, with the development of the Internet, smart cards and other inexpensive hardware components, and security protocols, it is entirely possible to launch completely viable alternatives to bank debt as the source of our medium of exchange.

The money system we rely upon is false, unstable, exploitative, unsustainable and ruinous, and it gives every advantage to the people who control it at the expense of everyone else. Every effort to bring peace, justice, sustainability and universal prosperity to the world could be greatly enhanced through adopting systems of decentralized credit (money) issue.

More information on the alternative system of exchange and clearing that I am working with others to launch will be forthcoming. There is a web site with information about what we are trying to implement, and why. This can be found at the following address: www.geocities.com/communitycurrency. Anyone interested in contacting me about this can reach me by e-mail. My contact info is available on that site.

Jeff Fairhall, Essential Baking Company